Methane emission from soil under long-term no-till cropping systems

Methane (CH4) emission from agricultural soils increases dramatically as a result of deleterious effect of soil disturbance and nitrogen fertilization on methanotrophic organisms; however, few studies have attempted to evaluate the potential of long-term conservation management systems to mitigate CH4 emissions in tropical and subtropical soils. This study aimed to evaluate the long-term effect (>19 years) of no-till grass- and legume-based cropping systems on annual soil CH4 fluxes in a formerly degraded Acrisol in Southern Brazil. Air sampling was carried out using static chambers and CH4 analysis by gas chromatography. Analysis of historical data set of the experiment evidenced a remarkable effect of high C- and N-input cropping systems on the improvement of biological, chemical, and physical characteristics of this no-tilled soil. Soil CH4 fluxes, which represent a net balance between consumption (−) and production (+) of CH4 in soil, varied from −40 ± 2 to +62 ± 78 μg C m−2 h−1. Mean weighted contents of ammonium (NH4+–N) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in soil had a positive relationship with accumulated soil CH4 fluxes in the post-management period (r2 = 0.95, p = 0.05), suggesting an additive effect of these nutrients in suppressing CH4 oxidation and stimulating methanogenesis, respectively, in legume-based cropping systems with high biomass input. Annual CH4 fluxes ranged from −50 ± 610 to +994 ± 105 g C ha−1, which were inversely related to annual biomass-C input (r2 = 0.99, p = 0.003), with the exception of the cropping system containing pigeon pea, a summer legume that had the highest biologically fixed N input (>300 kg ha−1 yr−1). Our results evidenced a small effect of conservation management systems on decreasing CH4 emissions from soil, despite their significant effect restoring soil quality. We hypothesized that soil CH4 uptake strength has been off-set by an injurious effect of biologically fixed N in legume-based cropping systems on soil methanotrophic microbiota, and by the methanogenesis increase as a result of the O2 depletion in niches of high biological activity in the surface layer of the no-tillage soil.